Prince Harry has revealed he turned to drugs and alcohol to cope with the trauma of his mother’s death.
The Duke of Sussex was just 12 years old when Princess Diana died in a car crash in August 1997, while she was being chased by paparazzi in Paris.
In his new Apple TV series with Oprah Winfrey, The Me You Can’t See, Harry addresses the trauma of losing his mother at such a young age in front of the entire world.
“For me the thing I remember the most was the sound of the horses’ hooves going along the Mall,” he told Oprah.
“It was like I was outside of my body and just walking along doing what was expected of me. [I was] showing one tenth of the emotion that everybody else was showing: This was my mum – you never even met her.”
The loss of his mother caused him to suffer severe panic attacks between the ages of 28 and 32, and Harry admitted: “I was just all over the place mentally.”
“Every time I put a suit on and tie on … having to do the role, and go, ‘right, game face’, look in the mirror and say, ‘let’s go’. Before I even left the house I was pouring with sweat. I was in fight or flight mode.”
Harry confessed: “I was willing to drink, I was willing to take drugs, I was willing to try and do the things that made me feel less like I was feeling.”
The 36-year-old admitted he would binge drink on a Friday or Saturday night “not because I was enjoying it but because I was trying to mask something”.
On the latest episode of the Gosscast, Goss.ie Founder Alexandra Ryan and Goss.ie Editor Kendra Becker are talking all things Friends – ahead of the show’s upcoming reunion special.
The girls also talk Ariana Grande’s secret wedding to Dalton Gomez, and the fact Naomi Campbell just became a mother!
If you’re looking for the audio-only version of our chat, you can listen to the Gosscast on Spotify and iTunes too.
